a long time coming but worth the wait pat. there’s a lot i admire about this board build: patience, perseverance, problem-solving, positive attitude, initiative, innovation. pure inspiration. thanks for sharing.
ps. love the leash loop idea
Hi Pat
The board looks awesome. I’ve just started on my fish again. It sorted of disappeared into the background. I headed off on a surf trip to a tropical island and then I started a new job. But everything is back to normal now and I’m hard at work again. I’ve got my rails on and am busy squaring them off.
I wanted to ask you what (if anything) you used for a vent plug. It would be great if you had some pics of the plug.
Shot
Antman
I like how you got the desired outline, especially in the tail, w/o sacrificing the true plan shape. There’s more than one way to skin the cat. Nice work!!
Lokbox: Thanks, although it will be a long time before I start another project of this scope again. I think I really need a workshop first.
Oldy: Glad you like the leash loop. It works great! I initially got the idea while reading about the patagonia boards on the pointblanks website. Then searched the archives and found a bit of info about rear exit leash loops. My main concern was minimizing the stress on the board when it goes over the falls. It pulls through the wave pretty well this way, but I bet this system would work even better on a board without a fish tail.
Antman: I’ll try to get some shots of what I did for the vent, totally forgot to show that. You’ll see what not to do. Get to work on that board, won’t you need a fish for the summer waves?
Eastern Pacific: That’s the only way I could figure out how to do the outline to match the plan. Although, my initial outline could have been better! I feel like in the past six months of reading everything on sways, my ability to look at a design and see what would work have improved vastly. I would have made my general outline shape a little more parallel, with the wide point moved forward a bit to avoid that bulge around the center.
Next up… riding report.
Ok, I’ve had the fish on the water three times now, and can begin to write about how it rides.
The first time out, I was scared it would sink. No leaks, and the seal held up great the whole session. I was watching the vent hole the whole time I was paddling, watching for bubbles though. My first takeoff went straight to the bottom. Nose burried in the face, and I followed. I was riding small mushy waves. After a few tries, figured out the takeoff. It really requires heavy pressure on the back foot during the drop to keep the nose out of the water.
But, the board felt really slow and heavy. It is about 18 lbs with the fins in, but still it felt really heavy. Hard to turn. And, in the flats it would sink. Once I got off the face, the nose would start burrying and spraying water like a snow plow. My first session was pretty discouraging.
Second session: Figured out the takeoff some more, but not much else. Got plenty of waves in about the same conditions and had the same problems.
Third session: Went out this afternoon in some larger waves. Very windblown and choppy, but waist high with occasionally a chest high set. I tried riding it differently, and it worked! Off the drop, I stayed very low, holding the outside rail, and went down the line. On one great little waist high wave sections kept breaking in front of me, but I held on to that rail and the fish just kept going down the line. When ridden on the face, in a low crouch, it’s an incredibly smooth ride.
So, a couple questions for anyone who’s read this novel:
Right now, I have the “Doc” lokbox fins on, but I’m thinking keels might work better? Since it seems to want to go straight, is there a benefit to having a single foil? Also, I’m thinking that with keels, I should go with less toe-in. Right now I’m at 1/4". I would have liked the fins to be a little further towards the rails, but that’s not something I can change.
Thoughts?
Thanks everyone.
Pat
very nice superfatpat, very nice indeed…
something that helped me when i started to ride my HWS fish was to take a slightely higher line if possible, the fishes seem to like it up there.
cheers
Thanks for teh tip. What type of fin setup are you riding with? Still the humming keels?
Pat